The Saem Bulgarian Complex Sheet Mask - Mini Review :)

Hello Everyone!  How have you been?  I am really really busy right now but I just had to share this review with you as I have been promising it for too long now :)  Today I want to share with you my experience with a sheet mask that I was gifted by W2Beauty a while ago.  It is from The Saem and apparently you cannot purchase it from anywhere as it is some kind of sample or gift. In any case I enjoyed using it a lot and I had the pleasure to try it out while I was on a working trip in Brussels. 

So here is a little description of the Mask Sheet :)

This mask sheet is marked as not being offerred for sale and has the following description on the packaging:

To All the world through Nature and the mind of The Saem. Containing Bulgarian Complex which brings comfort to tired skin. This is a Sheet Mask.

The above is my poor translation. Here is the actual Hangul version:

Maybe someone can provide a better translation as mine is heavily aided by google translate. My Korean is still very very poor :(

Anyway on to my review.. This mask is said to contain a lot of flower extracts mainly Bulgarian Rose, Chamomile, and Calendula extracts and should help perk up tired skin.

My Experience:

I applied this mask when I was in Brussels last October. I was sent there to represent the Authority I work for at the CITES Enforcement Group meeting and had an overnight stay.  I didn't have time to scrub off my skin as should be done because I wasn't at home and was lacking my products. So I applied this after cleaning up the day's makeup.  The mask has a nice fitting with only a few minor kinks that are expectable since it is a one-size-fits-all sheet.  It was soaked in serum as well and I had to be careful not to drip here and there.  The sachet is also extremely easy to open :) I so love how korean brands make their sachets easy to open with two dents, one on each side, as opposed to European single dented sachets (sometimes these are absent!) 

I wore the mask for a little over than an hour and it had dried completely.. the serum wasn't fully absorbed by my skin by then so I gave it a pat and waited a little bit until my face didn't feel tacky before crashing to bed. As opposed to other brands that I tried, this one is absorbed really fast... my skin wasn't prefectly prepared... you should scrub before applying a mask so that the serum absorbs faster but anyway...In the morning my face felt really smooth and elastic, and looked very fresh as well.

Overall the mask did perk up my skin and I felt it relieved and more supple.  If you manage to get hold of this mask, I suggest you wait for Friday night (a relaxed one)  clean your face and scrub it up and relax with this little beauty, especially if you work Monday to Friday like me.  It will revitalize your skin.. and don't forget your beauty sleep.. something I am really lacking on these days :(

I got my The Saem Mask from W2Beauty which she sent me with my last HairCare Haul which you can find here.  You can ask her to drop one in with your next order :)  You can have a look at her store using the link on the side of the blog, she has over 10000 products from where to choose and they are nicely organised by brand :) 

www.w2beauty.com

My Verdict is 4 Pink Diamonds, where I reduce 1 because it is not for sale :(  I would love to stash up on this one to perk up after tiring weeks of work :)

 

 

I hope you found this review helpful :) As an added bonus today I am going to share with you a selca from my stay in Brussels :)

 

 

Till next post,
Saranghae :)
Pauline

Weekly Manicure :) Ami and Sailor Mercury :)

So sorry for being so late in posting the Weekly Manicure but I had a little bit of experimenting to do :)

This manicure is going to serve a lot of tasks:

1.  It is a swatch and review of Etude House Ice Cream Nails in BL601 courtesy of W2Beauty
2.  It is a review and how to of striping tape courtesy of Born Pretty Store
3.  Phase one will be portraying Amy from Sailor Moon
4.  The complete manicure shall be portraying Sailor Mercury :)

Excited?   Let's get started :)

This is the base colour for the complete manicure. It is from Etude House's latest collection Ice Cream Nail in Blue BL601 which was sent to me from Alice of W2beauty as a gift with my previous hair care haul :)

This cute blue reminds me so much of Sailor Mercury's Bows that I decided it is the perfect shade to portray her both in her Senshi and Normal form.

I applied one coat of Nail hardener as a base, using my all time favourite Lioele Nail hardener which is running so low :(  The I painted my nails blue with one slightly thick coat of this cute blue. Here is a shot of the result :)

 

Hehe my nails aren't exactly clean and that's my desktop there :P

Well if you want you can stop here, apply a coat of top coat and clean the cuticles up, and you are ready :) 

I will be moving on to portraying Sailor Mercury!

To finish up the manicure I shall be using the following (the base colour is already finished):

Lioele Nail Hardener

Striping Tape in Metallic Blue and

Scissors (very shape)

Here is a close up of the striping tape.  This is easy to work with. All you have to do is peel the amount you need, place it on your nail and cut off the extras....but... you need a steady hand, a lot of patience and some immagination :)  I am going to show you how to do a simple design, firstly because it's my first time using tape and secondly, I don't want to scare everyone off with difficult stuff.

Basically what I am going to do is add two stripes to the side of each nail...they represent the stripes in Sailor Mercury's fuku or for those that are more of a motor head like me, they can be described as Racing stripes :)

Step 1:

I placed the tape to the far side of the nail and pressed it gently in a straight line. Avoid kinks as they will pull out faster.  Carefully I cut off the end.

Step 2:  Repeat the above placing the second stripe close to this one. Try to keep it straight as the gap in between the stripes will give you out if you slant it.

Step 3:  Apply a generous coat of top coat to keep everything in place.

Here is the result:

I have a dent in that nail there see... it got covered with striping tape :)

My opinion on the Striping Tape:

It is really useful to create crisp lines.  A steady hand is necessary to be able to move along without kinks. I applied the lines twice because the first time something went wrong and the taped turned silver. I am guessing it was because I washed my hands before applying the top coat.  The second time round the tape stayed a perfect metallic and the photo above is in fact showing the second set.  I had to be careful when pulling it off the roll as it can split from the centre.  It is also not useful for nail arts that are meant to last longer than 2 days as it starts pulling off at the tips.

Overall:

This tape deserved 4.5 Pink Diamonds:

I am reducing half a Diamond because it stays nice for a maximum of 3 days. I like to keep my manicures for a full week since I lack free time :)

You may purchase this tape from Born Pretty Store by following this link: Striping Tape  for only 99c of a dollar per roll :)


I hope you enjoyed this post and till next one,
Saranghae :)
Pauline

Etude House Silky Cotton Pad Review

Today I want to share with you a mini review of the Etude House Cotton Squares.  I received a few squares from W2Beauty as a sample and here is my opinion :)

 

The cotton pads are really soft and gentle on the skin. I used them with toner and cleanser and they worked perfectly well.  They do not fall apart into tiny bits and you don't get loose fibres getting in your eyes, something which I really love!The only downside is that they are a little small :)  There isn't a lot to say about these little cuties. I think that they are best suited to use with skin toners rather than with skin cleansers since they are on the tiny side :) 

You can purchase Etude House Cotton pads from W2Beauty here  for $4.77 :)

This was quite a short post, till next one!

Saranghae

Pauline

Manicure Tuesday :)

Hello everyone!!! Sorry for the delay with this week's manicure... for a change I was over busy ;)


This week's manicure is inspired by my long-time favorite Anime :

 

Plus I was really excited to try out my new nail polish :)

So first up is Usagi Tsukino (Bunny for the Maltese and Italians) in the First Season of Sailor Moon.  Here she was still a 14 year-old clumsy crybaby :P I will be doing more looks to reflect her transformation from one series to the next untill I reach the Sailor Moon Stars Season. So look forward to that.

Anyway... In this season, Usagi is 14 years old and is not exactly into nails so her nails are a normal short length that 14 year-old students sport.  She probably hasn't got the patience for complex manicures either so as she would rather spend her time shopping or playing video games.  Her favourite colours are pink and white and since she is a lazy and clumsy girl, I believe she woul just make do with clear polish.  To reflect a look that Usagi might sport when she is really into looking cute, I decided to do a manicure using light pink and while going through my stash (which is currently dwindling) I stumbled on the new polish that was sent to my by Alice from  W2Beauty with my SHINee Mini me - ETUDE House Ice Cream Nails in PK001. The Manicure is simple in one colour which also reflects Usagi's careless personality in this series. I didn't want to do anything particularly complicated.

This polish comes in a package that is soooo cute and since we all know that Usagi falls head over heals for cute stuff and adores ice cream, this nail polish is made to measure :)

So here we go with the tutorial:

The products that I used are my all-time favorite Lioele Nail Hardener which you can buy from Pretty&Cute

and the gorgeous Etude House Ice Cream nails in PK001 which as already stated before, was given to me by Alice from W2Beauty who also has it in stock :)

The Manicure is quite simple:

1. Apply 1 coat of base coat polish - Nail hardener
2. apply 2 coats of PK001 nail Polish. Make sure that each coat dries perfectly before applying the next or else it will turn out a mess.  Etude's polish dries out pretty quick so it shouldn't be a problem.
3. Apply 1 coat of top coat - Nail hardener 

The Final Look is shown below:

 

I chipped a nail so I had to shorten everything.  Quite sad about it but at least it turned out pretty good for this Usagi look :) Tell me what you think in the comments below! Do you think Usagi would actually wear this look?

Mini-Review - Etude House Ice Cream Nails - PK001

Here are my thoughts about the Nail polish:

• It looks better when applied to the nails than in the bottle. Somehow the colour is that of dirty pink in the container.
• The packaging is extra cute!
• The brush is not too wide and not too thin so it makes application easy
• The consistency is rather liquidy which is good to prevent bubbles and solid bits sticking in the nails
• Fast drying 
• It is a little stinky but it doesn't affect me much
• It needs to be applied in one thick coat for a good finish. Apparently all Etude polishes are like that. The downside here is that you really have to do nothing for some time to allow it to dry completely. The thicker the coat the longer it takes to dry.

The colous is a bright bubblegum pink which is really really sweet. It does remind me of strawberry ice cream as well.

Overall rating:

I rate this polish a 4.5 Pink Diamonds and I reduced that little because I am not fond of thick coats.  I am always on the run and usually do my polish in between things and don't have time to stick around waiting for it to dry so I prefer polishes which can build up in very thin coats. I would buy this product again though cause I love the packaging and the colour and also the final result is just precious :)

A Big THANKS goes to ALICE from W2Beauty for sending over the Nail Polish and inspiring this series of Manicures.  I hope you guys enjoyed reading through this first tutorial (even though it is simple) from the Sailor Moon Series and keep following for more :)

Till next Post,

안녕히계소요!

Pauline :)